Jonny Lee Miller recently co-starred with Benedict Cumberbatch in a stage version of Frankenstein directed by Danny Boyle. The two actors took turns in both of the lead roles. When I talked with Ralph Winter a few months ago, he couldn't stop raving about how great it was.

Well, Cumberbatch is now famous, as you probably know, playing Sherlock Holmes in the present-day reimagining of the Holmes stories for BBC.

CBS’s Sherlock Holmes reboot Elementary has solved its first big mystery — who will play the famous detective. Former Eli Stone star Jonny Lee Miller has been tapped as the lead of the project, a modern take on the cases of Sherlock Holmes who now lives in New York City. Robert Doherty wrote the script and is executive producing the CSB TV Studios pilot with Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly. Michael Cuesta is on board to direct.

I've never seen Miller in anything. He's not as distinctive-looking as Cumberbatch, but once he's in motion I can imagine him doing very well--particularly if they decide to take Holmes in a more outgoing, less "high functioning sociopath," direction.

We'll see, though. Right now, Miller just looks blandly good-looking, and that's a direction you definitely do not want to go with Holmes.

You've never seen Trainspotting? Or Mansfield Park? Or the miniseries version of Emma?

Alas, no. I'll have to check around on Netflix, I guess.

He also played an American lawyer on a mission from God (or was it?) in the TV series Eli Stone, so if this Holmes is set in New York, he can handle an American accent. He's a good actor, but not my idea of Holmes.

As for a female Watson, it's sort of been done before on screen, when Joanne Woodward plays psychiatrist Dr. Watson to George C. Scott's judge who believes himself to be Holmes in They Might Be Giants. It was filmed on location in NYC, too. I love that movie.

This Elementary thing, however, doesn't seem to have Scott's excuse of being deluded. I commented to a friend on Facebook that they should just abandon the "Sherlock Holmes" pretensions and call it "astoundingly perceptive dectective and his loyal sidekick"--yes, Holmes & Watson gave us the template for just about every detective story since, including House (it's a pun on "Holmes," ha!).

As for a female Watson, it's sort of been done before on screen, when Joanne Woodward plays psychiatrist Dr. Watson to George C. Scott's judge who believes himself to be Holmes in They Might Be Giants. It was filmed on location in NYC, too. I love that movie.

This Elementary thing, however, doesn't seem to have Scott's excuse of being deluded. I commented to a friend on Facebook that they should just abandon the "Sherlock Holmes" pretensions and call it "astoundingly perceptive dectective and his loyal sidekick"--yes, Holmes & Watson gave us the template for just about every detective story since, including House (it's a pun on "Holmes," ha!).

I can imagine the writer's room at CBS trying desperately to come up with a way to make Elementary different enough from Sherlock that the BBC doesn't sue them. "We'll set it in New York! Different enough? No? Um...Watson's a woman! Or a robot! A woman robot! And let's set it in 2066! And Holmes solves crimes using a computer! It's different because it's not a Blackberry!"

That said--I'm not opposed to having a woman play Watson per se (although it won't make the slash fans migrating over from Sherlock happy). As long as the character is in the ballpark, personality-wise, of what's in the stories--and as long as they don't try a will-they-or-won't-they--it might just work.

I think the BBC would have a hard time winning a lawsuit over "Sherlock Holmes Set in Modern Day"... they were hardly the first to do it (and we have seen Sherlock Holmes in the Future before as well). For there to be a worry about a law suit, they would have to be using visuals elements unique to Sherlock (such as the on screen text).

But "Sherlock Holms In the Modern Day" using modern technology? Not unique enough to mount a successful lawsuit.

I think the BBC would have a hard time winning a lawsuit over "Sherlock Holmes Set in Modern Day"... they were hardly the first to do it (and we have seen Sherlock Holmes in the Future before as well). For there to be a worry about a law suit, they would have to be using visuals elements unique to Sherlock (such as the on screen text).

But "Sherlock Holms In the Modern Day" using modern technology? Not unique enough to mount a successful lawsuit.

True. But the BBC has said that they're going to be scrutinizing the new series very closely, and if they see something actionable they'll be on it quicker than CBS can say "The game's afoot." So it's in CBS' best interest to make their "modern day Sherlock Holmes" as different as possible from the other "modern day Sherlock Holmes."

EDIT: Hrm. In other news, looking at the Deadline story again:

Just out of rehab, Holmes now lives in Brooklyn with “sober companion” Joan Watson (Liu), a former surgeon who lost her license after a patient died, while consulting for the NYPD.

I'm assuming Holmes is living with Watson while he's consulting. Not that Watson's patient died while she was consulting or while the patient was consulting. But hey, I could be wrong; that sentence has at least three--possibly more--alternate meanings. In any case, isn't this just another version of The Mentalist setup, except with Lisbon being a live-in doctor instead of a police contact?

Pretty sure I saw the hidden-saferoom trick in the first episode of The Mentalist. On the plus side, it doesn't look like a carbon-copy of Sherlock. Miller acts too much like Matt Smith for that to be the case.

EDIT: Embedding:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrDVSxNycKc

Watching it again, Miller's performance just screams DOCTOR WHO. It does look sufficiently different from both Downey and Cumberbatch to suggest the possibility of carving out its own niche, but I'm not sure I can watch it without expecting Holmes to whip out a sonic screwdriver at some point.

One makes the assumption that the bond between Sherlock and Joan will begin feisty and steadily grow, which sounds like a fantastic X-Files remake, and I’m glad you’re making it. Truly. And our gross irascibility (for which I am personally sorry) might be erased by our spellbound awe at the sheer purity of beauty that Elementary offers as a series, such that we come to you upon our knees, begging to wash your feet with our hair. That might happen, CBS.

[snip]

But don’t hand us a plate consisting of daikon, ox knuckle, and peanut butter and brightly tell us it’s potato salad, CBS. Because we may not be purists, but no one on earth loves their chosen dish better. Fair warning.

Apparently...Moffat feels the need to weigh inand declare Elementary a failure of sorts. And the real problem he sees? It is really different than his show!

“What we did with our Sherlock was just take it from Victorian times into modern day. [Elementary] has got three big changes: it’s Sherlock Holmes in America, it’s Sherlock Holmes updated and it’s Sherlock Holmes with a female Watson. I wonder if he’s Sherlock Holmes in any sense other than he’s called Sherlock Holmes.”